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The Guys vs. the Girls

by epicurious

on 03/21/07 at 06:08 AM

Andrea Winchester's blog, Rookie Cookery, has a very intriguing post on how men and women are positioned on the Food Network. Responding to Anthony Bourdain's recent entry on Michael Ruhlman's blog, which denigrated Sandra Lee and elevated Mario Batali, Winchester says: "Mario is a male, and Sandra is a female. And in the world of industrial food-sponsored television, male chefs get the respect and glory, while women are forced to prostitute their skills for prepackaged, bastardized food products. It's as simple as that. It isn't fair to lambast the women of Food TV and praise the men while ignoring the sexist cultural milieu of television and the dining establishment as well...The night time on Food TV is reserved for competitions and spectacle (generally, the guys) and soft, consumer-oriented travelogues (hosted by the admittedly most attractive and younger females). Day time programming is where the celebrity chefs do their thing, because presumably that is when America's daily cooks--the women--are home to watch and learn and draw up their grocery lists." Do you agree with Winchester? Is there an inherent sexism on television and in the food media in general, where men symbolize cooking as a blood sport and women are portrayed as simply there to show you how to feed your family?

Frankly I do have to agree with Anthony's summary of the Food Network (although perhaps with more tact and softer words) and I also think Andrea is on the spot too. They are both attacking the Network and essentially the same issue, just from different platforms.

It’s not fair to say that Anthony lambasted the women of FN and heaped praise on the men. What Anthony did was blast the Network, who has previously cast the two sexes into these ill-fitting and unfair roles. It’s true that the men largely hold the heavy-hitting shows while the women lick butter off their fingers and squirt branded aerosol cheese into the air while wearing a plastic smile (and sometimes not much more). Andrea just needs to point her finger further down the line to the executives at FN who make these programming choices.

I personally think that the FN is largely reprehensible and I simply just don’t tune in. Not only do sexist advertising vehicles trump quality programming, but also they are serving HUGE helpings of unhealthy dietary habits to Americans who can hardly afford such devastation. Anthony and Andrea have both done a fine job of highlighting the problems on the airwaves.

On the positive side, the enormous popularity of the Network is at least getting people back into their kitchens and out of the drive-throughs and frozen food aisles. Now that we have America’s attention, I wish we’d teach them how to cook decent real food, from real ingredients, and still make it entertaining and appropriate. Sadly, it’s not going to happen as long as Kraft is footing the production costs.

Auricula 03:45:07 PM on 03/21/07

I thought that Ms. Winchester's commentary was spot-on. However, i would like to bring up another instance of "guys vs. girls". Look at your own video series on the students at the Culinary Institute of America. The women are both learning majoring in "Baking and Pastry" while the men are learning "Culinary Arts." In the restaurant business, the pastry chefs are always "beta" to the "alpha" executive chefs. The question is what causes this divide: larger social trends (i.e. women are steered to non-competitive "nurturing" fields, while men are encouraged to compete in showier, more prestigious arenas), or rigid gender roles within the field of food service itself. Either way, just like food tv, epicurious has also succumbed to the perpetuation of gender stereotypes.

Editor's Reply: Hmmm...I hadn't thought of that. Honestly, we didn't have much choice with the baking program as it's almost all women, but you're right, it would have been cool to have a guy in the baking program represented in the Inside the CIA program.

Mcclowry13 02:32:08 PM on 03/21/07

Normally I wouldn't comment but Winchester's blog totally struck a chord ,I totally agree with her observations. I love the food network, to the point of obsession, but you can't help but notice that the men are chefs, and the women are cooks. The men wear their chef's smocks and the women have exposed cleavage. Even Giada who is a real chef. The men are out their competing, being serious about their jobs, not dumbing down the recipes for anyone. Where as the women have to make "simple" dishes, with big smiles on their faces, in their cheesy fake Kitchens. I for one have never been a fan of Sandra Lee, but you have to give her credit, she does what normal women do every day. She doesn't claim to be a chef, she is just trying to get dinner on the table and help other women do the same.

books59b 10:48:49 AM on 03/21/07

I hadn't thought about this either but it figures. I can't stand Paul Deen either nor for that matter Rachel Ray-although Rachel does give some pretty good ideas that do work in the kitchen. Can't stand Mario-I think he's a snob. My favorite is Alton(can't remember his last name. He get's the science behind the cooking.

mhundley 09:52:36 AM on 03/21/07

I loved Anthony Bourdain's blog and was in agreement (although not quite so scathingly) with his observations. Paula Deen horrifies me every time she licks her fingers or feeds something to the dog in her kitchen, and I agree with Bourdain that Sandra Lee is pretty much the devil with blonde hair and big boobs. Whacking open a can of biscuits and topping them with a lil' smokey sausage and cheddar cheese DOES NOT MAKE ONE A CHEF and does not earn my respect. With a few exceptions (Giada DeLaurentis is one), most of the women on TFN are not trained chefs, just entertaining cooks.

play_with_food 06:35:17 AM on 03/21/07

You know, I hadn't thought about it that way, but it is funny in the same way that the majority of teachers are women but principals and education administrators are men.But it seems a tad short-sighted since I (and I am a woman) like shows like Iron Chef, etc, but stopped watching because there were hardly any women represented!